Analyse Asia

In the latest #ThisWeekinAsia newsletter, we showcase the full transcript of our conversation with Gullnaz Baig from the Angsana Council discussing their recent report "Southeast Asia: Navigating the High Winds: 2024-2034" with DBS Bank and Bain & Company. "People always ask us this question, what can I learn from that country? People ask us about this from the report especially when we're talking to policymakers, or what should I learn from Malaysia? What should I learn? The thing to learn is to not learn to replicate exactly. But the thing to learn is sort of what are the principles behind what works for them. What are your comparative advantages, Every country needs to be asking that for themselves. So for Vietnam, comparative advantages are things like proximity to China, and the ability at a geopolitical level to navigate between the U.S. and China. They do this pretty delicately, given their history with both countries. There's an acquiescence by the major powers also to not force Vietnam to take sides. So, it's a delicate balancing game that ASEAN always plays ..." - Gullnaz Baig

Profitability & Growth: The Keys to SEA’s Digital Success by Wai Hoong Fock from Temasek "But I would also say that if you distil what we've said today, we are firmly confident in the launch and potential of Southeast Asia's digital economy. And so that we're pretty excited about. I think the strides that we made in terms of achieving profitability or driving towards a path to profitability have been really encouraging to see. I think there remains to be a little bit of work yet to be done around driving exits as we mentioned. AI is going to be a massive tool to allow the region to leapfrog and supercharge that digital economy. I think for me, success, in addition to greater regional, cooperation, certainly is the availability of affordable and effective digital solutions to both consumers, as well as companies. And I think, for us to get there, obviously, we also need to ensure that our workforce and our people, digital literacy is up, and they are educated, they're trained, retrained up-skilled to allow them to access that and to benefit from that growth. So that every generation prospers." - Fock Wai Hoong Main Site: https://lnkd.in/gyNFfe8g Full YouTube Video: https://lnkd.in/gZ8tAMnH Newsletter Signup: https://lnkd.in/gWedr5RK LinkedIn Page: https://lnkd.in/dH-rpqXf #asean #asianeconomy #temasek #artificialintelligence

#ASEAN Collaboration: The Key to Southeast Asia’s Global Success via Florian Hoppe from Bain & Company " The one success metric I wish that we could really see 5 to 10 years down the road is a deeper level of regional integration. This is really an ASEAN-level collaboration. This part of the world will never be the European Union. But at the end of the day, this part of the world wins or loses together and governments coming together, cross-country payment rails, deeper integration, and different sectors would be a huge win for Southeast Asia and will also help us put the region more on the global radar, which then builds champions that are kind of going beyond those shores and, and punch above their weight globally as well." - Florian Hoppe Main Site: https://lnkd.in/gyNFfe8g Full YouTube Video: https://lnkd.in/gZ8tAMnH Newsletter Signup: https://lnkd.in/gWedr5RK LinkedIn Page: https://lnkd.in/dH-rpqXf #asean #economySEA #southeastasia #asianeconomy

How Southeast Asia is Building Business Efficiency & Digital Inclusion Together by Sapna Chadha from Google "I  think the fact that profitability and growth don't come at the expense of each other, right? That's what we're seeing. Digital businesses in this region have done a tremendous job and this will continue. I have no doubt that this will continue. So what does this mean? It means that we will see the fundamentals continue, but we'll see more digital inclusion as a result of it. It's been a theme over the years that we talked about the need for inclusion. And I think we're at a moment in time where you're seeing the practices and the regulation is supportive. You're seeing businesses become more efficient, which is allowing them to expand into new areas. You're also seeing how the consumer savviness of this region is going to play out. And that is going to lead to new models that haven't existed elsewhere. And video commerce is that one, I think just, but it could lead to the digital inclusion that we've always wanted." - Sapna Chadha Main Site: https://lnkd.in/gyNFfe8g Full YouTube Video: https://lnkd.in/gZ8tAMnH Newsletter Signup: https://lnkd.in/gWedr5RK LinkedIn Page: https://lnkd.in/dH-rpqXf #digitalinclusion #asean #economySEA #southeastasia

How Hyperscalers Are Shaping Southeast Asia's Data Future by Sapna Chadha from Google "So in terms of the key players, you have the hyperscalers like Google, Microsoft and Amazon. They play a key role, obviously, in terms of data centre investment. That leads to data centre operators being very critical. You have the telcos. I mean, I would actually argue who's not a part of the ecosystem. That will be the outcome of this most. And it goes into multiple places. You have the data centres, you have cloud regions, you have subsea cables, right? So, there are a number of different types of investments that we as Google, have three major projects that we've been working on in the subsea cable space. across Asia because you want to make sure that the data becomes closer to home. It's localized but has the data sovereignty that the region deserves. But that actually leads to faster connections. And speed leads to better customer and consumer experience. And so that's a big motivation, right? to build the infrastructure across the board." - Sapna Chadha Main Site: https://lnkd.in/gyNFfe8g Full YouTube Video: https://lnkd.in/gZ8tAMnH Newsletter Signup: https://lnkd.in/gWedr5RK LinkedIn Page: https://lnkd.in/dH-rpqXf #datacenters #cloudcomputing #artificialintelligence #southeastasia #asean

Insuring Your Ride? The Rise of Embedded Insurance in SEA by Florian Hoppe from Bain & Company "What makes embedded insurance interesting is it's typically embedded in the purchase flow. So it's insuring your car ride, it's insuring your package before it gets delivered, it's travel insurance as you buy a trip somewhere else. So it's a very natural part of the purchase journey. It often plays to consumers' need to protect what they just bought in one form or another. We continue to see up ticking in different parts of the region. And for all the platforms, this is an important part of their profitability journey. So it's one of the adjacent services that they've gone into and are monetizing. Now at the backend of almost every one of these is an insurer. So there are insurance partnerships that are backing up and subscribing to the loan, and the books get built on the back of this. And then kind of providing these insurances as well. So it's very synergistic with the established insurance industry. Will never rival the scale of bigger life and PNC insurance markets as well, but it's an interesting pocket of the insurance market that is emerging there." - Florian Hoppe Main Site: https://lnkd.in/gyNFfe8g Full YouTube Video: https://lnkd.in/gZ8tAMnH Newsletter Signup: https://lnkd.in/gWedr5RK LinkedIn Page: https://lnkd.in/dH-rpqXf #asean #ecommerce #southeastasia #fintech #embeddedinsurance

Digital Payments in SEA: 56% and Growing Across the Region - Florian Hoppe from Bain & Company "Cash under a mattress is never going to be in any type of other digital financial services product. We continue to see that trend playing out really nicely. So going from 52 percent last year to 56 percent of total GTV this year. So actually growing quite fast and really being widespread across markets as well. If you look at the penetration of QR codes, and just the use of kind of adoption of account-to-account payment in different countries around the region, which also drives down the cost of payment, which has been a great overall story. On the back of this, you see lending, wells, and insurance doing really well. And the key here we think is just solid regulatory frameworks that further drive consumer adoption, and driving consumer use cases. Consumers are clearly keen to use these services. They often provide better value propositions, easier access and usability or lower cost than established channels. But given the trust part of the equation, I think having a strong regulatory foundation and having good constructs around that for digital financial services is critical to unlock the next wave of growth here." - Florian Hoppe Main Site: https://lnkd.in/gyNFfe8g Full YouTube Video: https://lnkd.in/gZ8tAMnH Newsletter Signup: https://lnkd.in/gWedr5RK LinkedIn Page: https://lnkd.in/dH-rpqXf #asean #economySEA2024 #southeastasia #fintech #digitalpayments

What’s Next for SEA E-commerce? - Florian Hoppe from Bain & Company "I think the other support effect, as we mentioned earlier that e-commerce is probably one of the oldest and most mature sectors in this space, and it's just become ingrained in people's behavior patterns. So we see two or three times transactions per month are now common for e-commerce. A lot of e-commerce users in Southeast Asia, of which there are hundreds of millions, which is just providing a great base to build on. And we're seeing now the last boundaries unlocked. I think some existing categories like electronics and fashion are highly penetrated, but you now see the move unlocking the last pieces of logistics around cold chain for grocery, around bulky logistics for white goods and furniture, which will, We think provide some further growth momentum for e-commerce over the coming years." - Florian Hoppe Main Site: https://lnkd.in/gyNFfe8g Full YouTube Video: https://lnkd.in/gZ8tAMnH Newsletter Signup: https://lnkd.in/gWedr5RK LinkedIn Page: https://lnkd.in/dH-rpqXf #asean #ecommerce #southeastasia #economySEA2024 #logistics

Let's start the new year with the ball rolling. Our latest episode features Gullnaz Baig, executive director from the Angsana Council, who came to our podcast to discuss their latest report: "Southeast Asia’s outlook 2024-2034: Navigating the High Winds" and share her perspectives on the economic outlook of Southeast Asia moving forward. "People always ask us this question, what can I learn from that country? People ask us about this from the report especially when we're talking to policymakers, or what should I learn from Malaysia? What should I learn? The thing to learn is to not learn to replicate exactly. But the thing to learn is sort of what are the principles behind what works for them. What are your comparative advantages, Every country needs to be asking that for themselves. So for Vietnam, comparative advantages are things like proximity to China, and the ability at a geopolitical level to navigate between the U.S. and China. They do this pretty delicately, given their history with both countries. There's an acquiescence by the major powers also to not force Vietnam to take sides. So it's a delicate balancing game that ASEAN always plays ..." - Gullnaz Baig Watch the full YouTube Video: https://lnkd.in/gWnu9G4M cc: Monk's Hill Ventures

Our host, Bernard Leong and the production team wish everyone a Happy New Year 2025. We look forward to our 500th episode in 2025 and reaching new heights with the channel! #HappyNewYear2025 By the way, our first episode of 2025 will start tomorrow morning 2 Jan 2025. Look forward to your support!